Super Monkey Ball Adventure

Super Monkey BallAdventure
Release Date	PlayStation 2 PAL: June 30, 2006 NA: August 1, 2006 PlayStation Portable PAL: June 30, 2006 NA: August 29, 2006 Nintendo GameCube PAL: July 14, 2006 NA: August 1, 2006
Platform(s)	GameCube PlayStation 2 PlayStation Portable
Publisher(s)	SEGA Traveler's Tales
ESRB Rating	E
Genre	Platform

Super Monkey Ball Adventure is the seventh game in the Super Monkey Ball series. It was developed by Traveler's Tales, published by Sega, and released for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable.

The game differs from the original Super Monkey Ball in terms of gameplay. It is less focused on the traditional floor level and instead has a story mode focused on plot, missions, and actions. There are over 60 characters throughout the 4 worlds, which still holds the record in the Super Monkey Ball series for the most characters.

According to Sega, this game was an attempt to make an adventure game with Super Monkey Ball characters. While the floors and party games are considered decent, whether or not the "adventure" attempt succeeded is debatable (See "Reception" section).

Game Modes

Story Mode

AiAi and friends must travel through four different worlds by completing missions and exploring the area around them to bring happiness back to the kingdoms of Jungle Island, Moonhaven, Zootopia, Monkitropolis, and Kongri-la. Throughout, they also need to complete some traditional Monkey Ball levels to unlock certain areas.

Challenge Mode

Challenge Mode returns but now has far fewer levels overall. The worlds are much simpler in design and recycle music from previous games. There are three difficulties - Beginner, Advanced and Expert. Advanced must be unlocked by completing Beginner and Expert must be unlocked by completing Advanced. The mode is noticeably less beginner friendly than in the first 2 games, with the Beginner and Advanced stages being in some cases noticeably more difficult, although the difficulty of Expert is about the same as in said games, and there is no true Master difficulty. All floors are used from various locations from Story Mode. There is also a fourth difficulty level called Exclusive which is only available in the PSP version of the game.

Party Games

There are six party games which can all be played with up to four players. These include Monkey Race, Monkey Fight, Monkey Target, Monkey Bounce, Monkey Cannon and Monkey Tag. The player can play as several NPCs from Story Mode as well as various difficulty levels by buying them from Paipai in each world.

Future AiAi is available as a playable character only on the PS2 and PSP versions, and must be unlocked on the PS2 version by transferring data from the PSP.

Exclusive to the PSP version, it features an online party game called Monkey Trumps. The player plays with cards collected throughout Story Mode to play various modes with others.

Worlds

1. Jungle Island
2. Moonhaven
3. Zootopia
4. Monkitropolis 
5. Kongri-la

Stages

Main article: Super Monkey Ball Adventure/Stages

Characters

Main article: Super Monkey Ball Adventure/Characters

Version Differences

PlayStation 2

• This version is the only one to have certain characters grinning or having any expressions in their faces besides smiling in various Story Mode cutscenes and Party Games.

GonGon in the PS2 opening cutscene of Story Mode. Here he can be seen grinning.

GonGon in the PSP cutscene.

GonGon in the GameCube cutscene.

• Bowls and Gravity Wells have a cleaner and better texture compared to the PSP and GameCube versions.
• Instead of skipping winches via loading screen, in this version you must go around the winch 10 times to unlock certain areas in Jungle Island and Zootopia. Moonhaven features elevators and a cannon to get to the Flying Automaton. Monkitropolis features a skytram and Kongri-la features an elevator from the land and tubes in the underground. These all must be traveled manually.
• Future AiAi is likely required to be transferred from PSP data to be unlocked. However, this must be confirmed compared to complete Story Mode 100 percent with each character.
• Cutscenes can be skipped by pressing X.
• MeeMee and Baby's icon in Party Games such as Monkey Fight and Monkey Bounce are replaced with one of GonGon's, once grinning and one in awe. This is not seen in other versions.
• Once Story Mode is completed, the loading screen for Challenge Mode is changed to a white background behind the characters instead of the Zootopia stage.
• Certain pipes in Moonhaven and the noise factory in Monkitropolis emit steam in this version.
• In this version, large impacts can temporarily deform the ball.

PSP

• This is the only version to feature Monkey Trumps, and, with it, online compatibility. Exclusive is also only found on this version.
• There are much more save slots found than just the available 4 on PS2, and 3 on GameCube.
• The Mysterious Traveler is found in his hidden places in Story Mode, but missing in the other versions to explain the storyline in this game.
• Trump cards can only be found on this version, and some can only be found on certain characters.
• Future AiAi can be unlocked in this version by completing story mode once after talking to The Mysterious Traveler in all five regions.

GameCube

• With this being the only console by Nintendo, the GameCube version has all different controls.
• This is the version with the least content. Not only are there expressionless characters like the PSP, Future AiAi is not a playable character completely nor is The Mysterious Traveler found anywhere.
• This is the most common version to speedrun Story Mode on online.

Gallery

Main article: Super Monkey Ball Adventure/Gallery

Animations

• Super Monkey Ball Adventure Idle Animations
• Super Monkey Ball Adventure Podium Animations

Reception

Super Monkey Ball Adventure received mixed reviews by critics due to confusion of mission goals in story mode, the lack of character control (causing a lot of fallouts, especially in Moonhaven), long loading screens, and time-wasting winches and elevators. SMBA obtained a ranking of zero in Rotten Tomatoes' video game section, Nintendo Power gave it a 5.5 out of 10 rating in it, along with other sources, claiming it was the worst game in the Super Monkey Ball series, X-Play gave it a 1 out of 5. Many consider the game's challenge mode and party games a saving grace, however even the challenge mode has been criticised for the stages looking unappealing and the backgrounds being very simple, the game's difficulty being unbalanced, the lack of levels and the physics not being as good as in the originals.

Cheats

The following button combinations can be used on the start screen to unlock levels usually bought in Story Mode.

GameCube

• All Monkey Race levels: X, B, X, B, Y, X, X, Y, B, B, Y, Y
• All Monkey Target levels: B, Y, B, Y, X, X, B, B, Y, Y, Y, Y
• All Monkey Fight levels: Y, B, Y, B, B, B, X, X, B, B, B, B
• All Monkey Bounce Levels: Y, Y, B, B, X, B, X, B, B, Y, X, B
• All Monkey Cannon Levels: B, Y, Y, B, X, B, Y, X, X, B, X, B
• All Monkey Tag Levels: X, B, B, Y, Y, B, Y, Y, B, B, X, X

PS2/PSP

• All Monkey Race levels: Square, Triangle, Square, Triangle, Circle, Square, Square, Circle, Triangle, Triangle, Circle, Circle
• All Monkey Target levels: Triangle, Circle, Triangle, Circle, Square, Square, Triangle, Triangle, Circle, Circle, Circle, Circle
• All Monkey Fight levels: Circle, Triangle, Circle, Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, Square, Square, Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, Triangle
• All Monkey Bounce Levels: Circle, Circle, Triangle, Triangle, Square, Triangle, Square, Triangle, Triangle, Circle, Square, Triangle
• All Monkey Cannon Levels: Triangle, Circle, Circle, Triangle, Square, Triangle, Square, Square, Square, Triangle, Square, Triangle
• All Monkey Tag Levels: Square, Triangle, Triangle, Circle, Circle, Triangle, Circle, Circle, Triangle, Triangle, Square, Square
• All Trump cards: Square, Triangle, Circle, Square, Triangle, Circle, Square, Triangle, Circle, Square, Triangle, Circle

Trivia

• The game was not released in Japan.
• This is the second Super Monkey Ball game to be released on multiple platforms, Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (Xbox, PS2) being released a year earlier.
• This is the only Super Monkey Ball game not to have Bonus Stages or a practice mode.
• Banana bunches in this game are only worth 5 bananas. Additionally, collecting a banana bunch that grants an extra life will not give the player full credit for the bunch, and will instead only give the number of bananas needed to reach the extra life threshold, and the rest of the bananas are lost.
• Regardless of which monkey is being used, AiAi's face is always shown on the map.
• The PSP version of the game contains a new difficulty mode, called Exclusive Mode, which contains levels only available on the PSP.
• Super Monkey Ball Adventure does not copy any stages from any older games, although in its debug mode duplicates can be seen, such as Hollow.
• This is the last Super Monkey Ball game to have MeeMee wearing a flower on her skirt, Baby’s diaper being a plain pale blue, GonGon's shirt being red with a yellow "G", and the characters having their classic design.
• Monkey Trumps features five characters that do not appear elsewhere: Can d'Can, Singsing, SaxSAX, Ha'harp and Bang-bang. The last four were likely replaced with a band starring Bran'ran, Sumsum, Flam'lam and Digdig for the royal wedding.
• The Mysterious Traveler and his stories are exclusive to the PSP version.
• This is the only Super Monkey Ball game in which Baby runs instead of crawls. This feature was averted in later games.
  • While Baby never crawls in the game, his character select profile does show him in a crawling position.
• This is also the first game where the player cannot save replays, with the others being Super Monkey Ball Jr., Super Monkey Ball (iOS) and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD.
• Along with having a speedometer, Super Monkey Ball Adventure also includes an altimeter and a radar.
  • The radar used while playing on stages features an AiAi icon from Super Monkey Ball 2 for all characters.
• This is also the only game that the life counter doesn't have a zero.
• All the stages in Story Mode make up the entire Challenge Mode rosters, excluding PSP's Exclusive mode.
• Four of this game's Party Games are never seen in the series again. Monkey Bounce, Monkey Cannon, Monkey Tag, and exclusive to the PSP version, Monkey Trumps.

See Also

• Super Monkey Disco Ball